The wonders of marshmallow
by likaloup
Summary: One shot of Remus and Tonks on Christmas morning. Its also kind of a missing moment from my other Fic 'The other girl' . Written for The Hot Chocolate Competition/Challenge by chewinggumandpencils


The wonders of marshmallow

Remus stumbled down the stairs of Grimmauld place in a sleepy haze; it wasn't that he wasn't a morning person, in fact he used to quite enjoy the early mornings in the cosy common room of Gryffindor tower. The peaceful hours of reading before his friends would storm in, causing chaos and mayhem in their wake. At these times however, in the cold dark wintry morning, his eyes continued to battle with his brain for the comfortable cosiness of his bed, and more sleep. It had nothing to do with age as Padfoot had suggested… nothing at all.

He massaged his temple as someone knocked the front door (Padfoot would be happy, someone finally remembered not to use the doorbell) trying to extinguish the murderous headache that he knew was slowly trying to creep its way through the nodes of brain. He had another week till the full moon and the headaches were already starting.

He pressed his head against the coolness of the door, his fingers working to undo the ancient chains and bolt securing the door shut, when, whoever on the side of the door, knocked again. Didn't people understand the meaning of patience anymore?

Removing his head from the coolness that was displacing the dull pain in his head, Remus plied the door open to see a snow covered Tonks before him.

Wearing wellington boots, a large red parker jacket, shivering from head to toe she managed to force out through chattering teeth "Merry Christmas" as she hurried in past the entrance way.

"Did you walk here from the ministry?!" Remus asked in horror, that was on the over side of London!

"I didn't think it would be this cold" she explained lightly as she buried herself in to Remus's chest taking him by surprize as she wrapped her arms around him trying to steal his warmth.

Remus didn't know what to do, there was a girl touching him, not a girl that made her sound like an adolescence. A women? No, that made him think of someone around Minerva ages and that wasn't right. Tonks, Tonks was touching him; holding him in desperate need for warmth the scent of her cherry shampoo whiffing its way into his nose making him want to bury his face into her bubble-gum pink hair, and allow his senses to be overcome by her sweetness. But he didn't, that would be wrong, Tonks was his friend nothing else. Then suddenly he knew what to do, when he began to feel her iciness though his clothing, he wrapped his arms around her pulling her in tightly as he closed the door behind her "Oh merlin, you're freezing" he whispered into the top of her head.

Tonks gave an appreciative moan for his body heat, before mumbling happily in to his chest "And you're lovely and toasty"

Remus gave a small snort of laughter "I thought you were working today?" he asked her, quietly hoping today would not be the day the children, sleeping upstairs, decided to get up early.

"Nah, Scrimgeour gave me the day off, good thing to as I was on patrol all night I'd probably just fall asleep at my desk" she informed him, she had been over the moon when he had sent her the note yesterday informing her she didn't have to work Christmas day, she had desperately wanted to spend Christmas here.

"Come on" Remus said as he slowly released her, leaving one arm draped across her shoulders "I think Sirius left the fire going in the drawing room" he said with a smile as he guided her though into the drawing room, both being gratefully greeted by the shearing heat of the fire, left to burn overnight.

Tonks escaping from Remus's grip skipped happily over to the fire place forsaking the sofa and collapsing merrily on to the floor patted the piece of carpet next to her asking Remus to sit beside her making him chuckle quietly.

"I'm going to get myself something to drink first" he told her leaning against the door frame "you stay here and warm up, do you want anything?"

Tonks eyes brighten, toying with the idea of being offered anything she wanted, but deduced that was not what Remus had been asking and quickly went for her second option "Hot chocolate?" she asked wondering if she couldn't conjure some mistletoe.

"If memory serves me right, we have some in the pantry I'll make some up for you"

"Thanks Moony" she called after him as he disappeared back into the hallway.

Tonks pulled her gloves off, finger by finger, warming them by the fire until slowly the numbness started to disappear from the tips. She had been stupid to walk here all the way from the ministry, and how she hadn't slipped on the ice and broken something was a damn near miracle, not that she didn't have a few near misses, but still. She had needed time to think, that was why she had walked. She was trying to think up a plan on how to get Remus to take the next step up on their relationship, from friends to … something more. She just wasn't sure how to go about it, she was sure he liked her, just not how much. There had been small moments in their friendship that she was sure were gate ways to something else…something more. The small lingering looks he gave her when he didn't think she would notice, the comfortable silences in the library on the numerous occasions she had cuddled into him, and the quite silent handholding that both knew was happening, but never commented on. If she could just find some a way for him to admit his feeling for her-

"Honeydukes finest" Remus said to Tonks interrupting her train of thought as he walked back into the room, holding two large mugs of Honeydukes hot chocolate in his hands

"Thanks" she said as she took her mug from Remus cupping it, sucking in the sweetness of the chocolate, feeling it warm her insides.

"I put in some marshmallows I hope you don't mind?" Remus asked sitting down beside her crossing his legs, sure he had made the right decision; Tonks did have a sweet tooth just like himself

"I think marshmallows are wonderful in hot chocolate!" she told him excitedly "I always remember thinking it was weird that they melted, always imagined them sponging the chocolate up and expanding in the cup" Tonks explained to Remus in a soft tone as she poked her marshmallows under the chocolaty substance letting it bounce back up. White foam swirling out from around the small sugary confectionary "You know, so you just had one big chocolaty marshmallow, I was really disappointed the first time my dad put them in and they started to melt" she told him sadly.

"And now?" Remus asked curiously it was such a strange thing to tell him, even if he did find it fascinating.

Tonks looked up from the white swirls blending in with the chocolate to look in to Remus's light blue eyes, telling him with a smile "I couldn't live without it"


End file.
